$12,000 a Night, but Negotiable; Hotels for Rich, Like Guests, Do Fine in Lean Times

True, economic troubles may be at hand. But it does not really matter quite so much when your hotel caters to clients who pay $10,000 a night and who tip a waiter more than most people pay to spend a night in a typical Manhattan hotel.

Manhattan luxury hotels like the Four Seasons, the New York Palace and the St. Regis have had their share of problems since the World Trade Center attack. But the economics are a bit different: the distress here may mean changing the fresh flowers only once a day and replacing the Italian curtains less frequently, minor adjustments compared with what is happening at most Manhattan hotels.

Why are they on sounder ground financially?

For one reason, they have thick profit margins -- meaning that it takes a longer time for them to get squeezed so hard that it hurts. But probably the most important factor contributing to their economic stability in a time of great problems in the industry is the nature of their clientele: the very, very rich.

''This is not meant to sound arrogant,'' said Michael Matthews, a vice president at the St. Regis Hotel, on East 55th Street at Fifth Avenue, ''but you have to understand that we are home to a certain world.

''We are the New York Yacht Club. We are more Martha's Vineyard than we are Hamptons. In bad economic times they sell just as many Rolls-Royces and private jet aircraft as they do in good times. Our clients are recession-proof.''

The data appear to support his conclusion. In Manhattan hotels where the rooms cost an average of $300 or more a night, occupancy rates have dropped only 2 percent from a year earlier, compared with a decline of more than 3 percent among other hotels in the borough, according to PKF Consulting, a hotel industry research firm. At the same time, these high-end hotels have seen room rates drop only 8 percent from a year earlier, compared with a roughly 11 percent decline in the rest of the borough, according to PKF's figures. These distinctions may seem minor, but they can mean the difference between profits and layoffs.

This has made it much easier for luxury hotels to avoid layoffs and cuts in amenities, like large, fluffy bathroom towels and Godiva chocolates on the pillows.

''The bottom line is that a guy who wants to spend $700 a night to go shopping in New York is not going to be affected as much as the average tourists,'' said John A. Fox, a PKF senior vice president.

While many in this rarefied slice of the Manhattan hotel industry worried about job cuts after Sept. 11, these hotels laid off fewer people and brought them back faster than did most Manhattan hotels, industry officials say.

Officials at the New York Hotel Trades Council, the umbrella group of unions that represent everyone from butlers to dishwashers, say that layoffs at high-end hotels make up only a small fraction of the jobs lost since the terrorist attack. At the New York Palace, which laid off 5 of its 19 bellhops in September, most of its workers are back and the hotel is actually hiring. According to the trades council, about 4,500 of the hotel industry's 24,000 workers in New York were laid off after the attacks. About 1,000 have yet to be rehired.

Luxury hotel officials explain that they cannot afford to lay people off and leave their jobs empty until business recovers.

Julie Devlin, a concierge at the Palace, said that serious staff cuts at her hotel, where many employees have worked for more than 15 years, would have destroyed a lot of institutional history. ''It takes a long time to pick up on the patterns, like the certain guest who calls up at 6:30 in the morning and wants a grand piano in his suite by 7,'' she said.

Michael Silberstein, managing director at the Palace, said that during tough economic times, Palace customers -- often shrewd businessmen and businesswomen themselves -- are often searching for the slightest imperfection, particularly in places like the Palace's four triplex suites with balconies, private elevators, bars and solariums with fireplaces.

Not surprisingly, Palace officials will not give out names of customers, making it hard to ask about service. But one well-known millionaire was said recently to have been upset about the lack of freshness of the flowers in her suite. Others at some luxury hotels have complained about cleanliness, suggesting that managers may be cutting back on the housekeeping staff.

At one elite hotel, which insisted on anonymity, managers are looking to maintain profits by wrangling with their food service providers to trim a few dollars off the cost of each Long Island duck breast and pan-seared salmon they serve. Likewise, at the Palace, Mr. Silberstein says he has argued to vendors -- much as management would argue to a union -- that they should take the hit now so that the hotel stays healthy and is able to repay them in good economic times.

But Mr. Silberstein said quality had not been sacrificed. ''We have the same flowers and the same accessories in the rooms and the same piano player in the lobby, and we are very creative as to how we price it,'' Mr. Silberstein said, adding that he had begun checking four times a day on the quality of everything, from laundry to food, provided from vendors who had agreed to reduce their prices.

In the late 1990's, boutique hotels like the TriBeCa Grand and Hudson Hotel -- with their trendy lounges and booming night life -- gained much more attention than the classic hotels for the super-rich on the Upper East Side and in Midtown. Boutique hotel operators say that traditional luxury hotels are still dinosaurs of a dying generation.

But Lanny Grossman, a Palace spokesman, demurred. ''The Hollywood crowd is still getting $20 million a contract and they still want to live a lavish life,'' he said, adding that those and other high-end clients -- including royalty, blue-blood families and professional athletes -- were ''much more reliable than the here-today, gone-tomorrow crowd.''

One recent afternoon at the Palace, Michael Jackson was in the gift shop. Mr. Silberstein, the managing director, was on an international call making sure a prince who was staying there would get the suite he wanted in another hotel in Switzerland. Robin Williams had been at the hotel a few days earlier.

While most hotels are beginning to show signs of recovery, traditional luxury establishments are ahead of their less elite competitors, according to a recent report from the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Still, there are deals to be had. The waiting list to get into the 6,000-square-foot triplex at the Palace is gone, along with the waiting list for a 3,000-square-foot suite resembling the private quarters of an exquisite chateau. The price for each is listed as $12,000, although each can be had for $2,000 less. (While the prices before Sept. 11 were negotiable, they are more negotiable now.)

The 3,000-square-foot presidential suite at the Four Seasons can be had for hundreds of dollars less than the $7,500-a-night list price, and the same goes at the Waldorf-Astoria, the Mark and the Plaza Athénée.

And despite the hints of cutbacks, the proprietors say that the service, even at these discount rates, will be the same.

''Service is something that happens when you are not aware that it happens, when the doorman asks you what time you are coming back and you say in the afternoon,'' said Mr. Matthews, the St. Regis vice president, ''and he hands you an umbrella because he has seen the weather report that says it is going to rain.''